Letting Elka just be a dog

There are times I think about all of the expectations that we have for Elka, and the expectations that dogs carry while trying to live in our society, and it's kind of overwhelming, really. I know that for me, sometimes  it's hard enough to remember all the social rules; dogs are really very smart, to do as well as they do.

There are times, though, I just have to let her be a dog. At the park especially, as I talked about in my recent sniffing post. Sniffing is important to dogs; their olfactory sense is just so strong as to be incomprehensible to me. You know what else is kind of a dog thing? Getting dirty.

There are two videos of Elka and her puddle. There would be more, but really, I'm kind of slow on the draw with the camera. I'd need a lot of practice to get any kind of quick-draw good and really, on our walks, I'm trying to enjoy myself too. So there it is.

On Elka's most recent encounter with her puddle, we hadn't been past it for some time. When she did see it, though, she RAN straight for it, and was actually grunting as she pounced and danced in it. It was so funny, I really didn't even think to get the camera out at first (Bad blogger, I know!) and just stood and laughed as she spun and pawed. So, sorry folks, just the one picture.

There are times, when Elka is splashing in her puddle (oh, and this time she splashed me quite a lot, as well) people pass by us and kind of give us looks. The dog is clearly getting wet and muddy, I'm laughing, I'm also getting muddy, and I'm not trying to stop her in any way. Because it's fun, and that's just what you need sometimes.